Welcome to Edinburgh Gram! Week One

I spy with my little eye something light blue...Gram!

November 22nd: Welcome to Edinburgh Gram! It's been way too long! Reunions are so much fun! We had a little time to kill before picking Asher up from nursery, so we went to South Pour for breakfast.

I'm not sure who was more excited Gram or Asher!

On Thursdays Kylie and Norah have volleyball after school. They were super excited when Gram picked them up!

Already introducing Gram to their favorite after school stop!
Three.14 

Today is Thanksgiving. We ended up having Enchiladas for dinner! We will celebrate with some American friends with all the fixings tomorrow! 

November 23rd: The rain has come! Treating Gram to typical Scottish weather! Starting off at our go-to cafe, August21! We spent the morning exploring and showing Gram some of the city. We checked out Victoria St, Grassmarket, The Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle.

Bristo Square

Grassmarket with the Castle towering above.
Mom couldn't get enough of all the telephone booths!

Victoria Street

The Writer's Museum, dated 1622

View of the city from the Castle, out towards the Pentland Hills

We celebrated Thanksgiving at a hall in our church with some American families from Blacket Avenue (the complex we live in). In attendance was the Burris family (Illinois), the Depauw family (Indiana), the Dahlfred family (California), and Ben Simmons (Colorado). There were a couple other friends that joined us as well, Giorgi Amirkhanashvili (country of Georgia) and Stewart, who is the building manager for the church (lives close by in Edinburgh)! It was quite the crowd and quite the feast!

The Depauw family (Adam, Lily, and Dayna)

Asher, Norah, Isabelle, Kylie, Macyn, Katelyn, and Easton

Mom, me, Meagan, Dayna and Giorgi

The Dahlfred family (Joshua, John, Karl and Sun. Not pictured
Katelyn who was sitting at the kids table.

Dayna and Stewart

November 24th: The weekend after Thanksgiving is usually when we get our Christmas tree, so that's we did! It's just a little smaller this year! We spent the evening with friends, the Ralstons, in a cute seaside area of Edinburgh called Portebello.

After dinner we headed home to drink some hot cocoa and listen to Christmas music while we decorated the wee tree.

We purchased our tree from our local grocery store, Sainsburys! It didn't take too many ornaments to fill this tree up! We will hopefully have a wee Scotland tree every year!

November 25th: We introduced Gram to public transportation Edinburgh style! And take a guess at what castle we went to visit?? If you have been following the blog you know which one!! You guessed it Craigmillar! It was Gram's first time exploring a castle!

After the Castle we came home for some afternoon relaxation and crafts! When Josh and Leigh were here they brought the kiddos some craft projects. They were really proud of their creations.

To the Christmas market we shall go! The kids were super excited to show Gram the Christmas market. We made an evening of it. Dinner, rides, and donuts!

Asher chose to ride around in circles on a reindeer!
Fake bubble snow came out at the end!

Norah chose to ride the Helter Skelter. It was a giant slide!

Kylie and Gram rode the swings! 

We had a great day!

November 26th: We dropped the kiddos off at school and met up with Alix and John at a new coffee shop, Brew Lab. Alix and John came to Edinburgh for the weekend for Alix to graduate! She had spent the previous year studying at the University of Edinburgh and we just missed each other when she moved out over the summer and we moved in. This was the first time we had met after years of "knowing" her through Cyndi. She and Cyndi worked together at Great West in CO. It was so nice finally getting to meet them!

After breakfast we walked to The Royal Mile for a little more exploring. We went to St. Giles' Cathedral and peeked into a couple shops before we went to see Kylie in a school assembly.

 

 Kylie's class was learning about the water cycle. Kylie had a speaking part. She did really well!

Mom and I picked Kylie and Norah up from school and headed to Holyrood Park.

November 27th: Coffee anyone? Our day started at another coffee shop! Have we told you that we really like coffee?! Well, not mom, but Seth and I do! Seth's go to drink is a cappiccino, where I enjoy a latte. We landed at one of our favorites, Black Medicine.

From here Seth went to be studious, and mom and I did some exploring at the Christmas market, we needed to look without kids!

Mom bought some beautiful scarves for my wonderful aunts
and a gorgeous lit globe for Mamaw and Papaw!

These potatoes on a stick smelled amazing! They tasted pretty good too!

We laid low this evening, as it was wet and cold outside! And we had been going, going, going, so we were all tired!

November 28th: Started the same way as most mornings, in a cafe. Today we went to Beetroot Sauvage. Such a great place and it is literally half a block from Asher's school.

We ordered scones to go with our coffees.

Mom and I headed up to New Town and Prince's street. We had to go into the classic Jenner's and look at the massive tree in the middle of the store, and checked out all the lights on George St.

We picked the girls up from school and had a surprise waiting on us when we got home! Kylie received a package from her teacher, Ms. Shamey and classmates at Meriwether Lewis. It was so incredibly thoughtful. She now has a class picture of her friends hanging in her room and a collection of letters written by her friends! All the kids received a package from Ann!! She always finds the coolest things. They each got little lights for the bath! Super cool!

Mom and I walked to the grocery store to get some things for dinner. Lucky for us, our great local pub is on the way. We stopped in at The Old Bell Inn. It has a fun decor on a normal day, but extra fun at Christmas time!

Scottish lager (Tennent's) in a Scottish pub!

Seth got to enjoy eggnog by the tree. We couldn't find eggnog in the store, so I found an easy recipe to make my own. Seth's comment, "It tastes just like store bought!" Not sure if that is a compliment or not! I don't like eggnog, so have nothing to compare it to. I will take it as a compliment!

Stay tuned for Week 2 adventures with Gram!